JoWooD

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
JoWooD Entertainment AG

logo
legal form Public company
( ATX Prime: JWD )
ISIN AT0000747357
founding 1995
resolution 2011
Reason for dissolution insolvency
Seat Rottenmann , AustriaAustriaAustria 
management Franz Rossler ( CEO )
Number of employees 24 (March 2011)
sales 25.33 million euros (2009)
Website www.jowood.com ( Memento from April 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

Old company logo

The JoWooD Entertainment AG was an Austrian companies in the computer game industry by which existed from 1995 to 2011. The JoWooD product range included games of all genres, from strategy and simulation to action and sports. The main focus was on the PC platform, but JoWooD also sold titles for game consoles .

At peak times, the company had five of its own development studios and employed over 200 people. Most recently, the company had 24 employees and at that time JoWooD was only active as a pure publisher . After the bankruptcy, the licenses and products were acquired together with parts of the workforce from the Swedish publisher Nordic Games .

Company history

Beginnings up to the first financial crisis

JoWooD was founded in 1995 in Ebensee by Dieter Bernauer, Johann Reitinger, Johann Schilcher and Andreas Tobler as a development studio for computer games. The international breakthrough came in 1997 with the computer game industrial giant , which was developed by the company's founders themselves. Even after that, JoWooD was able to celebrate further successes with titles like Die Völker . In June 2000 the company went public in order to provide a financial basis for further expansion .

The new capital was used to buy up developer companies and know-how, including the Wings Simulations studio before the IPO . In September, JoWood acquired Neon Studios . The conclusion in December was the German studio Massive Development , which at that time was developing the game AquaNox and its own 3D engine , the KRASS Engine . The graphics engine was later used by JoWooD for other game titles. In January 2001, JoWood first signed a mutual sales agreement with Infogrames and at the same time took over the majority of the Austrian distributor Dynamic Systems Software. In February JoWood opened a branch in Offenbach and in May finally took over the German distributor Leisuresoft from Infogrames. Additional sales offices were opened in England (March) and Japan (May).

In 2002 JoWood was close to bankruptcy , but was able to avert it. Among other things, the company took over the computer game portfolio of the game publisher Ravensburger , Ravensburger Interactive Media GmbH , including Arx Fatalis , Wildlife Park and the console version of Aquanox . To this end, the group carried out a capital increase and laid off half of the workforce in its production and distribution division. The capital increase turned out to be more positive than expected and thanks to the success of titles like Gothic II , the finances were finally restructured. In June 2003 JoWood carried out a further capital increase.

Second financial crisis

In 2004 the online shooter Mercenary: Secret Wars came onto the market, but due to a premature release it contained such serious errors that it was almost impossible to play. In December 2004 the JoWooD supervisory board resigned as the company's internationalization was not progressing as desired. In January 2005, Jowood founder Andreas Tobler left the company and was replaced by Albert Seidl from Capital Bank .

Towards the end of 2005 there was a legal dispute between JoWooD and the Australian company Perception, which was originally supposed to develop the title Stargate SG-1 for JoWooD. Perception filed an unsuccessful bankruptcy petition against JoWooD due to non-payment, while JoWooD filed a fraud report against Perception, as according to JoWooD neither the desired quality nor the agreed time frame was delivered during production. The game was finally discontinued in early 2006 and all employees were dismissed. After the legal dispute, JoWooD was again on the brink of bankruptcy. On November 17, 2005, JoWooD announced the entry of Koch Media GmbH as a strategic investor. As part of a debt equity swap , Koch Media waived claims against JoWooD. In January 2006 another cash capital increase was planned.

JoWooD then tried to realign the company. From now on they wanted to act as a pure publisher and video game distributor. By 2006, all five internal development studios of the company (JoWooD Vienna and Studio Ebensee in Austria, in Germany Wings Simulations , Massive Development and Neon Studios ) were closed. In-house technologies, such as the KRASS Engine , as well as some titles in development have not been further developed.

Time as a publisher

At the end of 2006 the game Gothic 3 by the developer Piranha Bytes came onto the market, but it also contained serious bugs when it was launched. Piranha Bytes later accused JoWooD of having been forced to publish it prematurely. JoWooD and Piranha Bytes ended their cooperation after Gothic 3 and there was another serious damage to JoWooD's image.

On 11 January 2007 JoWooD announced the acquisition of Canadian Publishers Dreamcatcher Inc. known. The takeover resulted in an expansion of the distribution capacity in America. The employees of the new subsidiary continued to operate from Toronto . Dreamcatcher Inc. had games like Painkiller , Cold War , Dungeon Lords and Agatha Christie: And then there weren't any more sold .

On March 1, 2007, JoWooD carried out a brand relaunch of the label. The changes include a new logo, a new website and the founding of the umbrella brand JoWooD Group with the sub-brands JoWooD, G-Stars, Dreamcatcher, The Adventure Company and SilverLine Software.

According to a report from boerse-express.com, the main shareholder Koch Media parted ways with its shares since 2007. The company fell below the reporting threshold of 10% on May 21, 2007 . JoWooD announced on March 12, 2008 that Koch Media had no longer held any shares in the company since March 11, 2008.

In 2009 the company generated sales of EUR 25.33 million, which corresponds to an increase of 1.2% compared to 2008. In 2010, however, sales and profits at JoWooD plummeted. In the first half of 2010 the company only achieved sales of 2.6 million euros and at the same time had to post a loss of 20.6 million euros. In April, CEO Albert Seidl left, at the end of October JoWooD also lost his CFO Klemens Kreuzer. The half-year balance sheet was postponed several times, then at the beginning of November it was announced that the loss had consumed half of the share capital. A capital cut of 7: 2 was introduced to cover losses.

One of the last larger titles distributed by JoWooD , Arcania - Gothic 4 , developed by the German company Spellbound Entertainment , which was previously traded as a beacon of hope for the company, received only mediocre to negative reviews from the trade press and remained far behind in terms of sales figures Predecessor back. While Gothic 4 , which was released for both Xbox 360 and PC, sold around 31,000 times in the first week, Gothic 3 , its predecessor, which only appeared for PC, had 150,000 sales.

Bankruptcy and Closure

On January 7th, 2011, JoWooD had to file for bankruptcy because an internal restructuring had failed recently. According to KSV, the liabilities amounted to 22 million euros, most recently 85 employees were employed, 20 to 25 of them in Austria. A reorganization procedure was applied for at the commercial court in Vienna. The bankruptcy was preceded on January 5, 2011 by a lawsuit at the Viennese court for 2.36 million euros against the publisher Koch Media in order to get the difference between the promised deposits. According to JoWooD management, these were only worth 4.04 million euros when they joined in 2005, but 6.4 million euros had been promised. On April 22, 2011 it became known that the negotiations with possible investors had broken down and the restructuring process was therefore discontinued. At last there were 24 employees in the company. JoWooD was around 76% in free float, almost 14% was held by the Canadian VenGrowth Technology, around 5% each by Erste-Sparinvest KAG and Pioneer Investments Austria Ltd. of Bank Austria.

In August 2011 it became known that the Swedish manufacturer Nordic Games had taken over the trademark rights of JoWooD and The Adventure Company through a specially founded Austrian subsidiary .

Published games (selection)

as well as the giants series

criticism

JoWooD has repeatedly been heavily criticized for releasing unfinished versions of games, especially the games Mercenaries: Secret Wars and Gothic 3 and its add-on . In Gothic 3 , the highly error-prone gold master version was withdrawn after game magazines refused to give a positive rating due to the many errors and legal threats to the game magazines did not have the desired effect. In an interview with the online games magazine Krawall.de , producer Michael Paeck confirmed these errors, but at the same time announced a new master version and a patch that will remove the remaining errors on the release day . Community manager Johann Ertl also confirmed in an internet forum that everyone would have an “outstanding and stable game” on October 13th . Nevertheless, the revised version of the game was also criticized due to numerous bugs.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Annual financial report 2009 (PDF) JoWooD Entertainment AG. May 6, 2010. Retrieved July 24, 2014.
  2. ↑ a bwirtschaftsblatt.at : 24 employees at JoWooD ( Memento from December 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ JoWooD takes over German game software developer. In: Golem.de. June 10, 2000, accessed December 30, 2018 (German).
  4. ↑ Jens Ihlenfeld: JoWooD takes over the game developer Neon. In: Golem.de. September 1, 2000, accessed December 30, 2018 (German).
  5. ↑ JoWooD takes over German developer Massive Development. In: Golem.de. December 12, 2000, accessed December 30, 2018 (German).
  6. ↑ JoWooD: takes over massive development . massive.de. December 14, 2000. Archived from the original on February 3, 2001. Retrieved January 16, 2011.
  7. ↑ JoWooD forms a strategic alliance with Infogrames. In: Golem.de. August 18, 2001, accessed December 30, 2018 (German).
  8. ↑ Computer game developer JoWood settles in Germany. In: derStandard.at. February 1, 2001, accessed December 30, 2018 (Austrian German).
  9. ↑ JoWooD takes over sales company Leisuresoft. In: Golem.de. Accessed December 30, 2018 (German).
  10. ↑ JoWooD with unrestrained expansion. In: Golem.de. March 21, 2001, accessed December 30, 2018 (German).
  11. ↑ Land of the Rising Sun no longer safe from JoWooD. In: Golem.de. May 11, 2001, accessed December 30, 2018 (German).
  12. ↑ JoWooD takes over Ravensburger Interactive. In: Golem.de. Accessed December 30, 2018 (German).
  13. ↑ JoWooD: More money to buy Ravensburger Interactive. In: Golem.de. June 5, 2002, accessed December 30, 2018 (German).
  14. ↑ JoWooD separates from half the workforce. In: Golem.de. December 18, 2002, accessed December 30, 2018 (German).
  15. ↑ JoWooD sees itself saved. In: Golem.de. January 13, 2003, accessed December 30, 2018 (German).
  16. ↑ JoWooD: Capital increase and successful restructuring. In: Golem.de. June 25, 2003, accessed December 30, 2018 (German).
  17. ↑ GameStar rating for mercenaries
  18. ↑ Test report on mercenaries at 4players
  19. ↑ Söldner - Secret Wars Review at GBASE.ch
  20. ↑ JoWooD founder Tobler leaves the company. In: Golem.de. Accessed December 30, 2018 (German).
  21. ↑ Stargate Shooter: Developers are suing JoWooD bosses. In: Golem.de. Accessed December 30, 2018 (German).
  22. ↑ Bankruptcy petition against JoWooD rejected. In: Golem.de. Accessed December 30, 2018 (German).
  23. ↑ Stargate shooter about to end? In: Golem.de. Accessed December 30, 2018 (German).
  24. ↑ euro adhoc: JoWooD Productions Software AG . In: FinanzNachrichten.de , November 17, 2005. Retrieved January 7, 2011. 
  25. ↑ JoWooD closes Wings and Ebensee. In: Golem.de. January 28, 2005, accessed December 30, 2018 (German).
  26. ↑ JoWooD closes Aquanox development studio. In: Golem.de. May 31, 2005, accessed December 30, 2018 (German).
  27. ↑ Robert Purchese in Eurogamer.net: Why Gothic dev Piranha dumped JoWooD
  28. ↑ JoWooD announces the takeover of the Canadian game publisher Dreamcatcher , JoWooD Productions Software AG. January 11, 2007. Archived from the original on November 14, 2007. Retrieved January 7, 2011. 
  29. ^ Koch Media GmbH , JoWooD Entertainment AG. March 12, 2008. Archived from the original on July 6, 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2011. 
  30. ↑ Leo Himmelbauer: Bad news from Jowood: 20.6 million euros loss . In: WirtschaftsBlatt.at , November 9, 2010. Archived from the original on November 12, 2010. Retrieved on January 7, 2011. 
  31. ↑ a b c Salzburger Nachrichten of January 8, 2011, page 21
  32. ↑ 4Players.de : Arcania: Gothic 4 - First (meager) sales figures
  33. ↑ JoWooD applies for the opening of a reorganization procedure , JoWooD Entertainment AG. January 7, 2011. Archived from the original on October 6, 2011. 
  34. ↑ Computer game developer JoWooD is insolvent . In: derstandard.at , January 7, 2011. 
  35. ↑ André Peschke: Gothic makers are suing their former saviors . In: Krawall.de , January 6, 2011. Retrieved January 7, 2011. 
  36. ↑ Volker Briegleb: Jowood is insolvent . In: heise online , January 7, 2011. Accessed January 8, 2011. 
  37. ↑ krone.at: "Game Over" for game manufacturer JoWooD , April 22, 2011
  38. ↑ Emmanuel Forsans: Nordic games holding AB Group acquires Jowood & The Adventure Company. In: afjv. August 21, 2011, accessed April 29, 2018 .
  39. ↑ Itch! (Windows) at MobyGames (English, accessed April 29, 2019)
  40. ↑ Pusher gameplay
  41. ↑ Florian Stangl: Gothic 3: threatening calls from angry publisher. In: Gamesaktuell. November 17, 2006, accessed July 6, 2019 .
  42. ↑ Martin Deppe: The Jowood Files. In: Gamesaktuell. December 18, 2007, accessed July 6, 2019 .
  43. ↑ Gothic III - Ride on the Razor Blade . In: Krawall.de . September 15, 2006. Retrieved January 7, 2011.
  44. ↑ Tobias Münster: New Gold Master: Met for Bugs . In: Krawall.de , September 22, 2006. Retrieved January 8, 2011. 
  45. ↑ Gothic 3 for PC Reviews. In: Metacritic. Accessed July 6, 2019 .